Girls swimming: Lombardi paces Legacy's strong day at Coaches Invite

Broomfield also shows well at prestigious meet

Legacy's Mary Lombardi swims her way to a 10th-place finish in the 200 freestyle on Saturday at the Colorado Coaches Invitational.
(
David R. Jennings
)

THORNTON -- The Legacy girls swim team expected to take a step forward this year. The Lightning conquered another hurdle on that path Saturday.

Led by strong individual performances from Mary Lombardi and Fiona Dretzka, who each advanced to finals in each of their individual events, the Lightning were able to put together an encouraging performance at the annual Colorado Coaches Invitational.

"This is definitely a stepping stone," Dretzka said. "I'm really pleased with how I performed and how our team performed. I think it's some building blocks for what's going to happen later on. It definitely was exciting to get back to finals as sophomores and juniors. Of course, some of the younger freshmen got to see what a big meet like this is all about."

Lombardi was the individual standout for Legacy, as she advanced to the finals heat in the 500 freestyle and the consolation final in the 200 freestyle. Lombardi, a sophomore, finished in 10th place in the 200 free and placed seventh in the 500.

Dretzka advanced to the consolation finals in the 50 freestyle and the backstroke. Dretzka placed 13th in both events.

"We definitely all have things we have to work on over the holiday training," Dretzka said. "I think that we're all pretty confident with where we are."

Broomfield finished fourth among the 4A programs competing at the meet and received a promising effort from freshman Kate Peterson. The young distance specialist finished eighth in the 200 freestyle as well as the 500 freestyle.

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Senior Abi Young was the only other Eagles swimmer to reach the final two heats, ultimately placing 16th in the 200 freestyle. Broomfield reached the consolation finals in all three relay races, with its best finish occurring with a 13th-place mark in the 400 freestyle relay.

"It was a decent meet," Broomfield coach Emily Austin said. "We had good prelims and had a lot of new state qualifiers that you didn't see swim in finals, so that's actually exciting. We had some other girls close to state. We had some good and some bad, but all in all I'm pleased with how they did."

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